Since January of 2005, we've been in the process of redoing and adding on to our Gregory Ain Home in the Mar Vista Tract of Los Angeles. There are 52 Ain homes in this tract which is now a Historical Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ). Ours was the model home for Ain's original tract.

About Me

Originally from Oregon, I moved to Los Angeles after attending U of Hawaii, then PSU for Graduate Degrees. I've lived in L.A. since the 70's. I write children's books for kids who have difficulty reading.

Previous Posts

Monday, July 11, 2005

Big Day - The Cement Foundation

This picture is a bit out of place, but I just found it. Remember when I talked about the special Deputy Inspector coming out and watching Steve glue rebar into the old foundation to attach to the new slab. Well, this picture shows the rebar after it was glued in. This was at a cost of $200 for the Deputy inspector to watch. Picture taken looking out the kitchen door. Door on left leads into garage.

We had to hire another Deputy inspector, (we used the same company) to come out on the day we poured the foundation to watch the cement being poured around the anchor bolts on the strong wall which is part of the window wall of the master bedroom( at the end of this post is a picture of the strong wall). His brother came out this time and watched. Nice guy and again, I wrote a check for a couple hundred dollars. (I'm telling you this is a great job!)

The big day was here - pouring the foundation. My brother Marty, who lives in Oregon, has a building company that specializes in pouring foundations, retaining walls and most things cement. We decided to fly Marty down to help us with the cement pour. I'd bugged my husband for weeks to let me know ahead of time so I could make my brother's reservation early to take advantage of the cheaper seven days ahead fare. Did that happen? No, at the last minute, we flew Marty down on a full fare and it is more expensive to fly from Oregon to LA than from New York to LA. Geez. No saving money there.

Anyway, we hired a pumper and called for the cement. Twenty yards. I also hired two out of work men I know to help pull the hose. My job was to have food ready - snacks and coffee for breakfast and later lunch. I felt like one of those pioneer women at a barn raising. Steve pulled on his boots and everyone went out to the front of the house to wait for the cement.

Steve is pulling on his boots here and looking irritated that I'm taking a picture, but hey that's part of my job. The the picture below, that is my brother Marty in the black shirt talking to the pumper guy.

The cement started flowing at 8:30 and was done by about 10:30 which included calling for two more yards for our "clean up." Because of these two yards we were charged an extra $250 because we didn't reach the cement company's minium. Anyway, there was a big discussion with the company and we weren't happy so I won't mention the cement company by name. In addition, we'd wanted 3/4" rock in the cement and they gave us pea gravel in our mix which isn't the best for slabs.

After lunch, which I served like the good little pioneer woman, the two helpers went home and my brother and Steve continued steel troweling and smoothing the cement. They also hosed down the cement. By two o'clock, we could walk on the new slab foundation.

By late afternoon, Steve and Marty were installing the strong wall (a special wall required by our engineer and bolted in. The blots into the slab had been inspected by the Deputy Inspector earlier in the day).Here is Marty checking the strong wall. The next day, they took off the forms and Marty flew home. Marty didn't charge us for his time and all of his help and hard work. So I want to put in here a big thanks to my little brother who did a great job and helped us a lot!

After dropping Marty at the airport, Steve went down to the lumber yard to get the first load of lumber so we could start framing. We were moving along now.